Mr. Smithfield - Louise Bay Page 0,43

like you.” I dropped a lingering kiss on her lips.

“You think I’m extravagant?” she asked.

“I think you’re full of life.” I kissed her again. “You breathe life into me.”

Her hands slid around my neck. “I’m not sure your friends would believe how romantic you are.” She stood on tiptoes and we kissed, our mouths meeting and tongues colliding, the lights of the city behind us. Everything just felt completely right. Completely perfect.

She pulled back and put her head on my chest as we looked out at the view.

“Speaking of my friends,” I said. “We need to agree what we do if one of them asks straight out if there’s anything going on between us.” I shifted and started to pour out two glasses of champagne, my arm around Autumn while I did.

She shifted away slightly. “Did someone say something?”

“I thought Dexter was going to the other night, but he just talked about me being an overprotective employer. We need to be prepared.”

“Okay,” she said, frowning.

“I didn’t mean to upset you.”

She shook her head. “You didn’t.”

I passed her a glass of champagne. “Cheers to your first trip to Rome.”

She clinked her glass to mine. “I’m so bummed you have to work this week.”

“I know. But—” I almost said that we could come back another time, but I stopped myself. There wouldn’t be another time. Not for Autumn and me. “You get to enjoy it with Bethany.”

“Let’s not think about it and just enjoy dinner,” she said, taking the cloche off a plate in front of her. “Pasta. If your kiss didn’t make me giddy enough, this might push me over the edge.”

I took a seat kitty corner to her so we could both see the view.

“I think we should be honest,” Autumn said after she swallowed her first mouthful. “To your friends. Or Hollie.”

“Okay,” I said, not wanting to commit myself to anything. What did honest mean? What would we tell them?

“But only if they ask.” She twirled her fork around, catching her spaghetti. “Hollie will be pissed whether or not I’ve been hiding it from her.”

“I like the idea of being honest,” I said and took a forkful of pasta. It didn’t sit well with me that Autumn was keeping things from a sister she was so close to. And that I was keeping something from Dexter that I knew he’d feel strongly about. But honesty was more than just responding to a question. It was offering up information if you knew someone would want to know. Wasn’t it?

“And if they ask, we say . . .?” I took a sip of champagne and waited for Autumn to reply. My feelings for Autumn had grown the more time I spent with her, but I understood that going forward wouldn’t be easy. She wasn’t going to be Bethany’s nanny beyond July, and she was planning out the rest of her life. I couldn’t demand to be included.

Autumn was never shy, but the way she looked at me from under her eyelashes suggested she didn’t want to be the first to offer an answer.

“I guess we say that we enjoy each other’s company,” I suggested.

She nodded as she chewed then swallowed. “Exactly. We like spending time together. And we’re hanging out and having fun.”

I chuckled. “I’m not sure Dexter will believe that. ‘Fun’ isn’t the first thing my friends associate me with.”

“Well Dexter hasn’t slept with you, so he would have no idea how fun you can be.” Her eyes widened and she grinned as if to say, Yes, I really said that. “What else would we say?” she asked, lowering her voice, almost like she didn’t want to ask the question. But it was a question she was going to have to answer. I didn’t want her to give anything up by being with me.

“I think your suggestion is good,” I replied. “We’re having fun.”

“And we’re using condoms and I’m still on the pill.”

I tried not to choke. “Do we have to get into that much detail?”

“Hollie is terrified I’ll get pregnant before I ‘fulfil my potential.’ I used to get lectures about it all the time back in Oregon. And to be fair it’s not like she didn’t have reason. There were so many girls back home who you’d think were going places before bam, they’d get knocked up by their boyfriends. Before you knew it, they’d be behind the registers at Trader Bob’s, working night shifts so they could look after their eleven kids during the day.”

“Wow. That’s an